Outer Banks 2011: Day 1

Today is our first day of our adventure to the Outer Banks. Anson has been here many times though not since he was a child and his parents were still living in New Jersey. I am quite excited about having him show me around, reliving old memories and making new ones.

Our first adventure on our trip started at about 15 miles from Raleigh, NC (home). We ran into about an hour of backed up traffic because of what we speculate from all the "hazardous material" trucks and flashing lights, might have been an over turned semi of what smelled like diesel fuel. So they decided to reroute everyone on the 3 lane interstate off an exit and through a small town. Thankfully our car didn't overheat though we did have to stop once to let it cool.

The rest of the 3 hour drive was quite enjoyable. There was a little rain but nothing more then a few drops. Once here in Kill Devil Hills we drove straight to our hotel. We are staying at a Ramada right on the beach with a wonderful view of... the street. Despite that I'm please to see they have a hot tub downstairs and indoor pool. There wasn't much time to spend out since we arrived at 4 pm so we decided to fill our hungry stomachs with a little southern BBQ and head over to the sand dunes.

Anson smiling for me. I like the refection in his glasses, though I think you can see it better if you click on the image to make it larger.

The Dunes. A bit like "Dune" the book by Frank Herbert.

Anson took the camera, as you can see.

There we had lots of fun playing around, taking photos of each other and enjoying the scenery. Anson does not think the dunes are as big as he remembers, though for old times sake I did make him jump off the steep sandy banks so we all could benefit from some pretty neat photos.

One of my favorites. An action shot.

Holding the setting sun.

Anson has become quite the photographer.

Right now we are back at the hotel. Sadly the dunes close at 9 pm so we only saw part of the setting sun. There seem to be quite a few vacationers here despite it being the beginning of the week and not a weekend. I suppose it is summer now.

Some of the other places we hope to visit while we are here is The Wright Bothers Memorial, Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, Rodanthe where the movie Nights in Rodanthe was filmed, and Wednesday we plan on hang gliding here at the sand dunes.